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Congressional reports can be a snooze. But that is not how I’d characterize Wednesday’s in-depth account of price gouging among prescription drug makers. The 130-page narrative prepared by the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging was juicy, detailing how four pharmaceutical companies have taken advantage of our health care system to enrich themselves and their executives, harming patients and taxpayers. (Gretchen Morgenson, 12/23)

We spend 18 percent of GDP on healthcare. We get a lot for that money, but no other developed country spends more than 12 percent. Something is wrong, and with the election over, now is the time for an overhaul. But to make the right repairs, we have to understand which parts are truly broken. Let’s start by recognizing just how complicated and opaque it is — and how many myths pervade the public discourse. A good place to begin is prescription drugs. (James K. Glassman, 1/2)

Among the Republican priorities in 2017 should be dismantling a culture of bureaucratic control at the Food and Drug Administration that poisons innovation and costs lives. Here’s an idea: Update part of the approval process that was patient zero for distorting data on a drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. (12/30)

The United States is in the midst of a massive opioid epidemic, as The Washington Post and other news organizations have documented extensively. In 2015, more than 33,000 people died from overdoses of opioids, meaning prescription painkillers, heroin, fentanyl or any combination. That easily keeps pace here with fatal motor vehicle accidents and gun-related deaths. ... But there’s another side to the story. Opioids can be an effective treatment for chronic pain, and too many people around the world have limited access to them. (Joel Achenbach, 12/23)

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed on almost nothing during the 2016 presidential campaign — but they did agree that the U.S. needs to address unaffordable prescription drug prices. And the public also supports this idea. A survey released in October 2016 showed that 64 percent of voters, including 52 percent of Republicans, believe that the federal government should place a “limit on how much pharmaceutical companies can increase prescription drug prices.” Further, 73 percent of all voters (68 percent of Republicans) concur that the federal government should be able to negotiate with drug companies to lower Medicare drug prices for seniors. While the November 8 federal election results have dampened prospects for policy change along these lines, does anyone believe that this issue now will disappear? We think not. (Karl Lauterbach, John McDonough and Elizabeth Seeley, 12/29)